beausoleil architects

Incroyable! Tres Grande Vitesse…

The French Chateau style house which we designed towards the end of 2010 for Quinta Properties (see “New French chateau in the Bay Area” below) was recently completed by builder George Adair (finishwithstyle@sbcglobal.net) after less than a year of construction – very rapid progress for an almost seven thousand square foot house on three levels. After completing the landscaping and other sitework, the house was staged and introduced to the market with a broker’s tour last week. 

The house reportedly remained on the market for quite some time before a buyer was found: a whole two hours! Perhaps the new owners will have to name the house Tres Grande Vitesse,  TGV for short, like the high speed trains of France. 

A French name would be appropriate, after all, as the house is a fairly authentic example of a ‘Chartreuse’, a traditional type of house found in the countryside of Gascony. A chartreuse can be large or small, formal or quaint, but it typically has one story, though often with attic rooms.  This example sits quite compact on its lot, so even with a half acre lot full of mature trees the grounds seem quite spacious. The house also has very high ceilings, and the combination of tall floor to floor heights, steep roofs and gabled walls, chimneys and finials, and a compact plan makes for a very vertical profile.  It’s a very distinct look from the more usual horizontal style seen in the U.S., and this distinctness might have added to its sales appeal

The front yard is also European -- the front door opens directly onto a motor court, with a detached garage flanking the house. The structure of the house, and its amenities, are entirely modern, of course. Truss framed roofs and engineered lumber helped speed the erection. George Adair is a master finish carpenter though, and the quality of the woodwork is evident. We wish the owners many happy years of enjoyment.

Free Energy Upgrades - our date is set, what about yours?

It has taken a few months to iron out the details and schedule the contractor, but in a few weeks Building Efficiency will be starting the energy upgrades to our 1922 home in San Francisco as part of the Energy Upgrade California Program.  We will be getting insulation added to the exterior walls, air sealing at all the doors, windows and fireplace, and a brand new high efficiency gas heater, all for free!

It's not too late to apply to the program as the $4000 from the state program will be available until the end of the year, but for San Francisco residents to qualify for all the funding (an additional $2000-$5000), the construction work needs to be complete by June 30, 2012.  For more information on the program, including a list of qualified contractors, take a look at the wonderful website the San Francisco Department of the Environment has set up.  You can even take a quick survey  online to see if your home is a good candidate before officially embarking on the process.

The Wind of History

The restored Murphy's Winmill, Golden Gate Park

If you haven’t been out to Golden Gate park recently, there is a grand new attraction. The 106 year old Murphy’s windmill at the Southwest corner of the park has been restored to operation. The sweep of the sails, the largest in the world of traditional Dutch design, takes one breath away. It’s a wonderful work of mobile art, craft and technology; history and the future wrapped in a slate and copper skin. Modern wind turbines may be more efficient, but this clipper ship of the windmill world is far more beautiful.

I was fortunate to get a personal tour last October from Lucas Verbij, of Verbij Windmill Design and Construction BV, the Dutch consultant who restored the cap, sails and mechanical workings of the windmill while the base (the ‘smock’) of the structure was being re-built by local contractors. He and his rigger – who climbs onto the wood ‘stock’ frames to set the cloth sails – were here to test the operation before handing the project off to the city.

The 64 ton cap (the top of the tower which holds the axis of the sails and which spins to face the wind) was reinstalled last September, after an almost ten year restoration process in Lucas’ workshop in Holland. The cap supports the sails, holds the main shaft and brake and gearing mechanisms. One of its more intricate parts is the fantail, a small windmill at the back, whose purpose is to drive the cap around so that the main windmill faces the wind. Any shift of the wind direction, left or right, and the small fantail mill turns and rotates the cap in the right direction. It’s an intricate dance. The main sails – the propeller blades – rotate at around 15 revolutions per minute under a strong wind. The blades are a work of art in themselves - heavy wood beams tapering to a narrow end, pierced with angled wood framing to creating a delicate winglike structure.

I was surprised to hear that, so far at least, there is nothing for the windmill to do. The original purpose, when it was built in 1905, was pumping irrigation water for the park. Murphy’s windmill and its slightly older cousin at the northwest end of the park could together pump 1,500,000 gallons of water per day from the freshwater aquifer that underlies the west end of the park. Lucas described the original pump and gearing as having a perfect design, with a kind of pre-Detroit syncromesh transmission. All of that was lost in the decades following its installation, as electrical pumps replaced the fickle wind and the structure was left to rust and decay. So at the moment, the system is running with the brakes on. Lucas said there was enough potential power to move 10 cubit meters of water a minute, 75 kilowatts of electrical generating capacity. That's about enough power to electrify about thirty homes.  Hopefully this will be put to use. Why not power the park’s waterfalls or lighting with this sustainable resource? 

Inside the Cap

Phil Ginsberg, the Rec and Park General Manager, says there is a plan afoot to have the windmill pump a small amount of water to irrigate a produce garden which will be used in connection with a food concessionaire in Millwright's Cottage. We can only hope this plan is brought to fruition and is able to keep the sails spinning.

See http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist/wmill.html for more history of the windmill
.